Eden of the East - Speculations
In AnimeHolics we have been watching a new anime called Eden of The East directed and written by the same guy who did GITS: SAC. Seeing that it had a lot of good reviews, we started watching the first episode and were hooked ever since. The praises were well deserved.
I think the main character wins my award for Best Entrance yet.
It's a been a while since I've seen an anime that makes me think so I decided to just jot down some random thoughts / notes / theories I have on the events happening in the series through Episode 9.
Spoilers Ahead - Read only if you are watching the anime
Episode 7 seems to be my favorite by far. You know, the one with this woman:
This episode has one of the strangest yet interesting conversations I've seen - regarding getting "love from johnnies" and in their world, a johnny is a male's dingaling. The awkwardness of the moment for the viewer comes not from the dialogue itself but from the seriousness of the main character. The main character asked the question with such care that you would think he was asking her if she's ever been loved (which I think was his real question). At the point in which he said he'd save her, you can see he genuinely has a good heart and in a way, he pities her. She seemed a lot more poignant than she did earlier in the series when they portrayed her as a dominatrix murder and a immovable president of a big modeling agency.
Some of the recurring themes I see over and over again are these:
The Truth can Kill You - It seems as though one of the biggest themes in the anime is revolving around finding out truths. Our main character is in a quest for information but I'm not so sure I want him to find out all the secrets, or the truth of all his questions. Every time someone reveals a truth or finds out the truth to their questions, they die. IV died after telling him about the Selecao rules and the support, Panties died after finding out more about Mr. Outside's identity, and so did V after telling Akira about the inception of the game and the concept of Mr. Outside.
It's like the more truth you unveil, the more likely you are to die. That's why I am scared for Akira. He wiped out his memory probably to get rid of the information in his head because if people found out what he knew, he would be dead. I'm afraid that once he finds out all the answers to his identity and the whole Selecao, he will end up dying :-(
Mis-Information - A lot of information seems to be misconstrued. I mean, the "Johnny Killer" wasn't taking young virgin's lives. Instead, she was killing rapists. On top of that, we all thought it was Ohguri (I think that's his name) was on the chopping block but in the end, it was some rapist who was posting on the love forums. The entire Eden gang was misinformed, which is what drove most of the plot for episode 7. I can go on and on about this but I'll have to write examples for days on end.
Identity - Eden is an image proccesing software that allows humans to tag the information. As we saw in the last episode, when Akira's image is posted, there is no information about him...and then 5 minutes later there were a lot of mis-information because of his different identities. I do think the reason he has 5 different identities is to protect himself. If the other Selecao can't find out who he really is, they can't kill him / harm him.
Terrorism - Careless Monday, Terrorist Cell. This movie is set in 2010...which is next year. It's weird to think of this anime is actually set in our current generation as the fight against Terrorism still rages on.
Technology to solve the world's problems - Eden. Must I say more? Technology can never save the world's problems, not by itself. Eden is only as good as the people who feed her information...She has no brain.
Now more about speculations about identities:
Akira - He is portrayed to be the clear "good guy" and was portrayed as a very dangerous man was Saki met him. I think the anime series will portray him as a "bad guy" once again before unveiling him as a true savior. I mean, his dog is an angel and he is a mesiah, how can he not?
Juiz - I think she is an AI. I am sure of it. She can compute information and carry out tasks at a lightning pace. She executes commands to kill human beings without hesitation. She doesn't play sides or show favoritism to any particular Selecao. She doesn't unveil the motives or plans of other Selecao because she doesn't have free will.
The Outsider - Everybody thinks Akira is the supporter but I actually I think Akir is Mr. Outsider. For some reason, it just makes sense in my head. What if Mr. Outsider isn't on the outside after all and is on the inside all along? It would follow the theme of identity and mis-information perfectly.
The Supporter - ???? I am still stumped on this one. I don't think it's either of the guys we see in episode 9 (I or X). I have a feeling it's someone we've met but don't see a lot...like Saki's brother in law or something like that.
This series seems to be set up to support a lot of plot twists that I have yet to foresee. I have high hopes for the next 2 episodes and the movie. Let's hope we don't have to wait 5 years before the movie comes out- that would be tragic.
I think the main character wins my award for Best Entrance yet.
It's a been a while since I've seen an anime that makes me think so I decided to just jot down some random thoughts / notes / theories I have on the events happening in the series through Episode 9.
Spoilers Ahead - Read only if you are watching the anime
Episode 7 seems to be my favorite by far. You know, the one with this woman:
This episode has one of the strangest yet interesting conversations I've seen - regarding getting "love from johnnies" and in their world, a johnny is a male's dingaling. The awkwardness of the moment for the viewer comes not from the dialogue itself but from the seriousness of the main character. The main character asked the question with such care that you would think he was asking her if she's ever been loved (which I think was his real question). At the point in which he said he'd save her, you can see he genuinely has a good heart and in a way, he pities her. She seemed a lot more poignant than she did earlier in the series when they portrayed her as a dominatrix murder and a immovable president of a big modeling agency.
Some of the recurring themes I see over and over again are these:
The Truth can Kill You - It seems as though one of the biggest themes in the anime is revolving around finding out truths. Our main character is in a quest for information but I'm not so sure I want him to find out all the secrets, or the truth of all his questions. Every time someone reveals a truth or finds out the truth to their questions, they die. IV died after telling him about the Selecao rules and the support, Panties died after finding out more about Mr. Outside's identity, and so did V after telling Akira about the inception of the game and the concept of Mr. Outside.
It's like the more truth you unveil, the more likely you are to die. That's why I am scared for Akira. He wiped out his memory probably to get rid of the information in his head because if people found out what he knew, he would be dead. I'm afraid that once he finds out all the answers to his identity and the whole Selecao, he will end up dying :-(
Mis-Information - A lot of information seems to be misconstrued. I mean, the "Johnny Killer" wasn't taking young virgin's lives. Instead, she was killing rapists. On top of that, we all thought it was Ohguri (I think that's his name) was on the chopping block but in the end, it was some rapist who was posting on the love forums. The entire Eden gang was misinformed, which is what drove most of the plot for episode 7. I can go on and on about this but I'll have to write examples for days on end.
Identity - Eden is an image proccesing software that allows humans to tag the information. As we saw in the last episode, when Akira's image is posted, there is no information about him...and then 5 minutes later there were a lot of mis-information because of his different identities. I do think the reason he has 5 different identities is to protect himself. If the other Selecao can't find out who he really is, they can't kill him / harm him.
Terrorism - Careless Monday, Terrorist Cell. This movie is set in 2010...which is next year. It's weird to think of this anime is actually set in our current generation as the fight against Terrorism still rages on.
Technology to solve the world's problems - Eden. Must I say more? Technology can never save the world's problems, not by itself. Eden is only as good as the people who feed her information...She has no brain.
Now more about speculations about identities:
Akira - He is portrayed to be the clear "good guy" and was portrayed as a very dangerous man was Saki met him. I think the anime series will portray him as a "bad guy" once again before unveiling him as a true savior. I mean, his dog is an angel and he is a mesiah, how can he not?
Juiz - I think she is an AI. I am sure of it. She can compute information and carry out tasks at a lightning pace. She executes commands to kill human beings without hesitation. She doesn't play sides or show favoritism to any particular Selecao. She doesn't unveil the motives or plans of other Selecao because she doesn't have free will.
The Outsider - Everybody thinks Akira is the supporter but I actually I think Akir is Mr. Outsider. For some reason, it just makes sense in my head. What if Mr. Outsider isn't on the outside after all and is on the inside all along? It would follow the theme of identity and mis-information perfectly.
The Supporter - ???? I am still stumped on this one. I don't think it's either of the guys we see in episode 9 (I or X). I have a feeling it's someone we've met but don't see a lot...like Saki's brother in law or something like that.
This series seems to be set up to support a lot of plot twists that I have yet to foresee. I have high hopes for the next 2 episodes and the movie. Let's hope we don't have to wait 5 years before the movie comes out- that would be tragic.